Where else but Temple Health would you see two leaders with decades of experience volunteering to work at the bedside? That’s exactly what Meaghan Kim, MHA, BSN, RN, CDCES, AVP of Population Health and Casey Dascher, MBA, RD, CDCES, Temple Diabetes Program Manager, have done—and it has enriched our patients’ experience, as well as their own.
“About a month ago, we had a sudden opening in our inpatient Diabetes Educator role at TUH-Main Campus,” Dascher explains. “We had just established the position a year ago, and Meaghan and I were determined to make something work. We put our heads together and said, ‘Okay, we know how to do diabetes education. We’re willing to learn new things and explore different options. Let’s give this a try.’”
Both Dascher and Kim are Certified Diabetes Educators, and each has experience working directly with patients. While she hadn’t previously provided inpatient care, Dascher is a working manager who sees outpatients in Endocrinology and Primary Care, teaching diabetes self-management classes and offering nutrition therapy, insulin training, and continuous glucose monitoring. In the past, Kim had been an inpatient bedside nurse, and, before coming to Temple, led inpatient diabetes education and oversaw an inpatient diabetes team.
“We know diabetes. We know what patients need,” Kim says. “When we suddenly had this opening, we knew we could bring that guidance and share it with our patients and care teams in the hospital. Our new EndoTool glucose management system was also going live in-house, so the timing was perfect to be able to offer additional resources for our nurses and health professionals who had questions about the tool and how it guides insulin dosing, especially for high-risk patients.”
An Education in Providing Education
While working on the inpatient floors has been an adjustment, Kim and Dascher have proven that they’re up to the challenge. “In the outpatient setting, our team helps people with diabetes manage their disease on a day-to-day basis: dilated eye exams, foot exams, medications, monitoring, nutrition and meal planning,” Dascher says. “In the inpatient setting, you’re teaching survival skills. ‘Do you know how to take your insulin? Do you know how to check your blood sugar, and do you know what to do if it goes too low or too high? Let’s establish your diabetes discharge plan.’”
“We’re seeing a lot of patients who are newly diagnosed, and patients who are coming in with uncontrolled A1C levels,” Kim adds. “We’re seeing patients who are new to insulin and need instruction on proper injection technique. On the other hand, we have patients who come in on insulin pumps, and both of us are pump experts. We also have transplant patients who are new to diabetes because of the immunosuppressant medications they now have to take.
“It can be scary for patients who are new to insulin if they’ve never self-injected before,” Kim continues. “We ensure that they can use an insulin pen, that they can return demonstration, that they have the tools they need to monitor their blood sugar, and that they know what their blood sugar levels mean. It’s one thing to have a meter, but we have to make sure they know how to interpret it, because we don’t want them returning to the ED for another admission. Our goal is to make sure they have what they need for a safe discharge, and to get them connected to ambulatory care. If we can get them to our Ambulatory Diabetes Program, then we can build on the basic knowledge they get in the hospital.”
Experience Enriches Recruitment
While Dascher and Kim are still actively recruiting for the inpatient Diabetes Educator role, they feel the experience of temporarily filling the position themselves has been invaluable.
“I keep saying that this has been the best thing, because it’s given me a whole different perspective,” Kim says. “We all know our patients face challenges, but when I’m sitting at the bedside with a patient and hearing their stories and trying to figure out what in our arsenal we can use to help, it’s both humbling and overwhelming at the same time. That’s why I’m so glad we have this position, because it’s just so necessary. Almost 50% of our patients at Temple are facing diabetes, so being able to provide education like this is critical.
“I also think this has made both of us better prepared to onboard the person we end up hiring,” Kim continues. “At the same time, I don’t think I’m going to be able to leave the bedside 100%. I think we’re both going to continue stepping into the clinical role as we lead our respective departments and keeping our fingers on the pulse of what’s happening at Temple. Walking the walk and talking the talk is, I think, the only way to know what’s really happening on the ground floor.”
If you’re interested in applying for the Diabetes Educator role, you can learn more on our Recruitment page.
